Off topic - I'm stressed!

[kimbo]

Scottietottie,

WOW

This too shall pass?    Does that help

Pace yourself?  Fight the good fight?  Hang in there?

Sometimes the people who need to learn the most are the ones trying to lead.

Take American politics for example.

Scottie , seriously those kids are the ones who will suffer at the expense of poor leadership.

I hope you persevere in this.  luv kimbo

[Bucky]

This has to do with a new head, trying to stamp her authority on a school.

Scottie - I can feel your frustration.  I too am dealing with a "new head" at school and I KNOW it is affecting my blood pressure.  I have come within a nano-second of quitting on several occasions.  In fact, I'm still considering leaving the end of December.  Having SjS and dealing with this on a daily basis just isn't worth it.  I use to like going into work - this is my eigth year there - but last year and this year I just dread going in there.   

I'm sorry you have to go thru this.  Hang in there. 

Bucky

[kimbo]

Longevity on any job means out lasting a lot of kooks, they come and go while you stay and endure.

Never stay where you can clearly see it will always have an unusually lack of good leadership, life is just to short to be unhappy with your job

Kimbo

[Chana M]

Hi Scottie

I'm really glad you posted about this because it's so important, and it reflects the experiences of all of us who are trying to make the world just a bit better in any way we can.

I don't know if any of these are useful ideas but here goes:

- is the new head likely to care about exam statistics?  Do the exam results from the young people on your programme go on the school's results table or are they separate?  If they're going to affect the school's position on the results table then the head might reconsider making it harder for your students to do their best.  In my experience headteachers care about this sort of stuff, to the detriment of other (important) issues.

- does your local education authority have a specialist in school exclusions/other special needs who might have an opinion on this?  I know you said your line manager said you shouldn't contact the LEA but it seems reasonable to do so.

- do you have a strong and supportive trade union rep?

- all the main newspapers have 'diary' sections in their education pages where people can relate stories like this anonymously.  I'm sure they'd be interested in this issue.  Or maybe contact one of the journalists directly.  If you're in the UK you might find Melissa Benn or Fiona Millar at the Guardian helpful.

Let us know what happens.  And keep breathing deeply - in between bellowing with rage and frustration!  I think the bellowing will help with the blood pressure just as much as the deep breathing!

Chana xxx

[Scottietottie]

Hi Chana   

You're thinking along the same lines as me - but unfortunately - not the same as my manager. I was wondering about going down the 'anonymous' route. We gave our lads a mock paper today and they are nowhere near ready to sit an English GCSE. This is going to really knock their confidence, which we have been trying to build up. Not one of them managed to write as much as a page and not one of them wrte in sentences with punctuation. Most of them couldn't actually work out what the questins meant.

The mock maths went slightly better.

Thanks for the names - I might ontact one or both. I do feel strongly about this.

The head does care about marks. That's what I really don't get. The school is patently a 'failing school'. Only 21% of it's pupils managed to get an A-C Grade in English last year. We are wondering if she is trying to put a November exam onto last year's figures and concentrate on the 'can do' pupils in June. I don't know. Like I say - I'm a youth worker - not a teacher - and I'm part time as well so have no access to head teachers and upper management. I do have a better idea how schools are actually run than my manager though as I was a parent governor for about 15 years. (Head teachers must have been soooo relieved when my children left school!  )

This would not be the first time I've 'taken on' authoriy. If I do.

Take care - Scottie